The Pali suttas don't give a lot (if any) guidance for the Bodhisattva path, because they are designed to teach the path to arahantship, so it's hard to reconcile the two paths. As far as I can tell, this is why you have the Bodhisattva ideal that arises in mahayana.

Actually the bodhisatta notion arose among the Mainstream schools before the arising of the Mahayana. http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/jeffrey2.htm As the Mahayana assumed an oppositional stance vis a vis the Mainstream schools, the bodhisttva notion took on a very different flavor from what is found in the Mainstream schools and the very early Mahayana bodhisattva sutras such as the Ugra.

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond.SN I, 38.

Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireas na daoine.People live in one another’s shelter.

After briefly outlining the lives of these six buddhas, Gotama begins an in-depth recollection of the first buddha, Vipassii, from his life in Tu.sita heaven until he dispersed his monks for the purpose of spreading the teachings. In this narration, the Buddha not only refers to Vipassii up to his enlightenment as a bodhisattva,(26) but also takes the life events of Vipassii as the example for all future bodhisattvas and buddhas, including (retroactively) Gotama himself.(27)

Another section of the sutta-pi.taka where the term "bodhisattva" pertains to each of the six previous buddhas is the Samyutta Nikaaya. For instance, in the fourth section of the second book, we find the phrase "To Vipassi, brethren, Exalted One, Arahant, Buddha Supreme, before his enlightenment, while he was yet unenlightened and Bodhisat[ta], there came this thought...." This same phrase, then, is used in conjunction with the other five previous buddhas in the following verses: Sikhi, Vessabhu, Kakusandha, Konaagama.na, and Kassapa.(28)

While most of the uses of the term "bodhisattva" concern Gotama Buddha and the numerous buddhas who preceded him, there are also references in the Paali canon to the possibility of future buddhas (and hence bodhisattvas) . For example, in the Cakkavatisiihanaadasutta of the Diigha Nikaaya, the Buddha foretells of the future when "an Exalted One named Metteyya [Skt: Maitreya], Arahant, Fully Awakened [i.e., sammaasambuddha], abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy, with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to mortals willing to be led, a teacher for gods and men, and Exalted One, a Buddha, even as I am now," will arise.(29)

Though Maitreya is the only future buddha mentioned specifically, the possibility of attaining buddhahood is not restricted solely to him. In the Sampasaadaniiyasutta of the Diigha Nikaaya, for instance, Saariputta is professed to have said: "In the presence of the Exalted One have I heard him say and from him have received, that... in times gone by and in future times there have been, and will be other Supreme Buddhas equal to himself [i.e., Gotama] in the matter of Enlightenment."(30) Thus, no longer is the term "bodhisattva" used solely in conjunction with Gotama, with other past buddhas, and with Maitreya; the bodhisattva-yaana is regarded as a possible, albeit difficult, path open to anyone who desires buddhahood.

This more expanded use of the term "bodhisattva" is explicitly expressed in the Khuddakapaa.tha. In the eighth chapter of this canonical text (the Nidhika.n.dasutta) , the goal of buddhahood is presented as a goal that should be pursued by certain exceptional beings. After demonstrating the impermanence and uselessness of accumulating and storing material possessions or treasures, the sutta mentions another type of treasure that is more permanent and which follows beings from birth to birth.